Chapter 8

1. Chapter 8 Politics, Immigration, and Urban Life

2. The Gilded Age • Gilded means covered with thin layer of gold • Era of rapid growth of railroads, small factories, banks, stores, mines and other enterprises, together with dramatic expansion into highly fertile western farmlands. • There was a great increase in ethnic diversity from immigrants drawn by the promotions of steamship and railroad companies which emphasized the availability of jobs and farmland. • Term used to describe the thin layer of prosperity that covered the poverty and corruption of much of society • Wealth was concentrated in the hands of a few, while many people were very poor.

3. Laissez-Faire • Term means to let be • Late 1800s businesses operated without interference from government= no government regulation! • Most people/business agreed to this. They wanted business to grow to make more money and more jobs. • Most low income families did not realize that government involvement would mean protection for them

4. Credit Mobilier Scandal • Crédit Mobilier was formed by Union Pacific Railroad. • The company was the sole bidder for certain construction contracts from Union Pacific and in 1864 was given much of the Transcontinental Railroad to build, with hefty federal subsidies ($$$$$). • The company also gave cheap shares of stock to members of Congress who agreed to support additional funding. • During an investigation, it was found that the company had given stocks to over 30 representatives of both parties including future president James A. Garfield. • Garfield denied the charges and went on to become President.

5. Spoils System • an informal practice by which a political party, after winning an election, gives government jobs to its supporters as a reward for working toward victory, and as an incentive to keep working for the party • Often jobs given to people who were completely unqualified • term was derived from the phrase "to the victor go the spoils."

6. Republicans Appealed to industrialists, bankers, eastern farmers, blacks, Favored tight money supply backed by gold, high tariffs to protect business, gov aid to RR, limits on immigration, and blue laws Democrats Less fortunate people, northern urban immigrants, laborers, southern planters, western farmers Claimed to represent ordinary people Favored increase money supply backed by silver,lower tariffs on imported goods, higher farm prices, less gov aid to big business, fewer blue laws Gilded Age Political Parties

7. Blue laws • Laws forbidding “immoral” activities • For example: men and women could not live together before marriage, stores could not open on Sunday, liquor could not be sold on Sunday • No prostitution

8. Reforming the Spoils System • 1877 Rutherford B. Hayes elected presidents. • Hayes refused to use the spoils system / patronage to appoint supporters and instead appointed people who were qualified and fired those who weren’t • Began to reform civil service jobs (non-elected jobs like postal carriers, civilian employees on military bases) • Hayes further angered Republican supporters, like NY Senator Roscoe Conkling, by firing Chester Arthur from the New York state Customs House. • Hayes said from the beginning that he would not seek re-election… It’s a good thing!

9. 1880 election • Republicans split into Stalwarts, supporters of Conkling who supported the spoils system; Half-Breeds, followers of Senator James Blaine who wanted to reform the spoils system from w/i the Rep. party, and Independents who opposed the spoils system all together. • Republicans nominated James A. Garfield, a Half-Breed, for president and Chester Arthur a Stalwart for Vice-President

10. Garfield assassinated!

11. What happened to Charles Guiteau? • Guiteau was found guilty of assassinating Garfield, despite his lawyers raising an insanity defense. He insisted that incompetent medical care had really killed the President. Although historians generally agree that while poor medical care was a contributing factor, it was not a legal defense. Guiteau was sentenced to death, and was executed by hanging on June 30, 1882, in Washington, D.C.

12. Chester Arthur became President • Arthur had supported the spoils systems during his campaign • After becoming president supported civil service reform • Used death of Garfield to push through the Pendleton Civil Service Act, which created the Civil Service Commission to test applicants for government jobs. Jobs would now be based on merit, not favor.

13. 1884 presidential election • Reps. Nominate James Blaine • Dems nominate Grover Cleveland • Campaign focused on scandals rather than issues • Cleveland opponents said that he had fathered child out of wedlock • Cleveland became the first Dem elected pres since 1856, despite scandal, thanks to the mugwumps, a group of Republicans that decided that Blaine was too corrupt to support.

14. Ma, Ma, Ma, where’s my Pa? He’s in Washington. Ha! Ha! Ha!

15. Grover Cleveland • Favored tight money policy, which favored big business (this is normally a republican policy) • Oppose high tariffs • Took back 80 acres of RR land • Supported RR regulation

16. Railroad Regulation • Munn vs. Illinois1887 allowed states to regulate RR practices w/i their borders • Most RR traffic crossed state lines • any lawyers for RR said that only fed gov could regulate interstate commerce *** established the constitutional practice of public regulation of private business that serves the public interest

17. 1887 Interstate Commerce Act • Allowed gov to regulate RR • Rates had to be set in proportion to distance traveled, outlawed special rates, outlawed free tickets. • Set up Interstate Commerce Commission, but it was very weak. Lost most cases that it tried in court (15 out of 16 b/t 1887-1905)

18. 1888 presidential election • Cleveland lost to Rep Benjamin Harrison • Harrison favored higher tariff and won business support • Made choices as president that harmed the economy (pensions to Civil War soldiers, and high tariffs)

19. 1892 presidential election • Grover Cleveland became the only president in U.S. history elected to two non-consecutive terms • 1893 Panic-millions of workers lost jobs, wages cut, gov offered no help • Coxey’s Army marched on Washington D.C. to demand that the gov create jobs

20. 1896 election • Cleveland did not win his party’s nomination; Republicans nominated William McKinley • William Jennings Bryan nominated by both Populists and Democrats • McKinley won due to support from the urban workers and the middle class; won a second term in 1890 on the slogan “a full dinner pail” (prosperity)

21. McKinley’s assassination • President and Mrs. McKinley attended the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York where he delivered a speech on September 5, 1901. • On Sept. 6, 1901, McKinley was at the Temple of Music, greeting the public. Leon Frank Czolgosz waited in line with a pistol in his right hand concealed by a handkerchief. • at 4:07 P.M. Czolgosz fired twice at the president. The first bullet grazed the president’s shoulder. The second went through McKinley's stomach, colon, and kidney, and finally lodged in the muscles of his back.

22. McKinley continued • One bullet was easily found and extracted, but doctors were unable to locate the second bullet. • It was feared that the search for the bullet, using 19th century techniques, might cause more harm than good. In addition, McKinley appeared to be recovering, so doctors decided to leave the bullet where it was. • The newly-developed X-ray machine was displayed at the fair, but doctors were reluctant to use it on McKinley to search for the bullet because they did not know what side effects it may have had on him. Also, ironically, the operating room at the exposition's emergency hospital did not have any electric lighting, even though the exteriors of many of the buildings at the extravagant exposition were covered with thousands of light bulbs. The surgeons were unable to operate by candlelight because of the ether used to keep the president unconscious. So the doctors were forced to use pans instead to reflect sunlight onto the operating table while they treated McKinley's wounds. • McKinley's doctors believed he would recover, and the President recovered for more than a week at the home of the exposition's director. On the morning of 12 September, he felt strong enough to receive his first food orally since the shooting — toast and a small cup of coffee. • By afternoon he began to experience discomfort and his condition rapidly worsened. McKinley began to go into shock. Eight days after he was shot, he died from gangrene, which surrounded his wounds, at 2:15 a.m. on September 14, 1901, in Buffalo. His last words were "It is God's way; His will be done, not ours."

23. What happened to Czolgosz? • Czolgosz was later found guilty of murder, and was electrocuted at Auburn Prison on October 29, 1901.

24. Section 2Immigrant Experience • Between 1865 and 1890, 10 million people entered the US • Individuals hope for personal liberties /social mobility • education, cheap land, and religious freedom

25. Titanic setting sail April 2, 1912

26. steam-powered transportation made traveling to the US quicker • Immigrants make trip across Atlantic in about 1 week • majority of immigrants traveled in steerage • at first men came alone to establish themselves in the New Country • men were called “birds of passage”

27. Leaving their homes required great courage. • The voyage across was often miserable. • Most immigrants could afford only the cheapest accommodations • Ship owners jammed up to 2000 people on the ships • In these close quarters, disease is spread rapidly. Diseases like the measles infected many immigrants. 27

28. Political and religious persecution pushed many people to leave their homes. In the late 1800s, the Russian government supported pograms, organized attacks on Jewish villages. Millions of Jews fled Russia and Eastern Europe to settle in American cities. 28

29. immigrants

30. immigrants

31. Ellis Island and Angel Island • 70% came through Ellis (European descent) • Asians enter through Angel Island in San Francisco or through Seattle • Faced quarantine for disease • After 1890 huge shift in where immigrants came from=most now from eastern and southern Europe

32. THE IMMIGRANT EXPERIENCE: 1820-1980 South/East Europe 10000 Germany Scandinavia 8000 Latin America Asia British Isles 6000 Immigration in 1000s 4000 2000 1820 1840 1860 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 Push FactorsPull Factors +1840s: Irish Potato Famine +Economic Opportunity +1850-1920: Overpopulation, War +Political/Religious Freedom +Recent: Overpopulation, War, Oppression +Land Availability

33. Statue of Liberty welcomed immigrants on Manhattan Island through the “Golden Door” after 1886. 33

34. The New Colossus by Emma Lazarus Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame, With conquering limbs astride from land to land; Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame. "Keep ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

35. Ellis Island-immigrants faced the dreaded medical inspection. Doctors examined eyes, ears and throats. The sick were quarantined to keep the disease from spreading. Officials had only minutes to check each new arrival. 35

36. Angel Island • Chief port of entry for Chinese immigrants from 1910-1940 whose entry was excluded but for some exceptions • The Chinese on Angel Island spent weeks, months, even years detained • Angel Island’s purpose was to keep immigrants out • Erika Lee, At America’s Gate

37. Detention • Men and women—even husband and wife—were separated until they were admitted

38. Many immigrants heard stories that the streets of the United States were paved with gold. Once in the United States, the newcomers had to adjust their dreams to reality. They immediately set out to find work. Through friends, relatives, labor contractors, and employment agencies they found jobs. 38

39. Immigrants adjusted to their new lives by settling in neighborhoods with their own ethnic group. An Ethnic group shares a common culture. Within these ethnic neighborhoods, newcomers spoke of their own language and celebrated special holidays with food prepared as in the old country. 39

40. CHINESE EXCLUSION ACT OF 1882 In the spring of 1882, the Chinese Exclusion Act was passed by Congress and signed by President Chester A. Arthur. This act provided an absolute 10-year moratorium on Chinese labor immigration. For the first time, Federal law denied entry of an ethnic working group on the premise that it endangered the good order of certain localities. It was not repealed until 1943.

42. CHINESE EXCLUSION ACT1882 • Chinese immigrants worked for low wages. • Labor groups pressured politicians to restrict Asian immigration. • Banned all but a few Chinese immigrants. • Not lifted until 1943.

43. Impact of Chinese Exclusion Act 1882 1869 1902 1892 1943

44. GENTLEMEN’S AGREEMENT: • In San Francisco, all Chinese, Japanese, & Korean children placed in special Asian schools….led to anti-American riots in Japan. • In exchange for President Roosevelt persuading San Francisco officials to stop separation policy, Japan agreed to limit emigration to U.S.

45. MEXICANS COME TO U.S. TOO • Some became U.S. citizens when the nation acquired Mexican territory in 1848 as a result of the Mexican War. • About 1 million Mexicans arrived b/w 1910 to 1930 to escape turmoil in their country. • U.S. needed workers after severe limitations placed on other workers from Asia

46. Section 3Urbanization If you are an immigrant, is your life at all like what you expected in America? What were you “promised”? What did you actually find?

47. Rural to Urban migration • Migration to the cities occurs in the early 1900s as a result of the technology that is present on the farm. Not as many farmhands are needed to accomplish the work.

48. Booming Cities • By 1860 one out of every five Americans lived in a city • Jobs drew people to the city • People worked in steel mills, meatpacking plants, and garment factories. 48

49. City Life Many poor families crowded into the cities oldest sections. Middle-class people lived father out in row houses or new apartment buildings. Beyond them, the rich built fine homes with green lawns and trees. 49

50. Poor families: • crowed slums • streets were jammed with people, horses, pushcarts, and garbage • living space limited so builders devised new kind of apartment to hold more people • put up buildings six or seven stories high=tenements w/no windows, heat, or indoor bathrooms • Typhoid and cholera and raged for the tenants. Tuberculosis was the biggest killer. 50